Barrow AFC defender Sam Hird is delighted to be back in the fold, following a short spell out injured, having gone through the most frustrating spell of his career prior to his arrival at Holker Street.

Hird made his first start for three weeks against Boreham Wood last Saturday after recovering from a hamstring strain he sustained against Aldershot Town.

It was the first fitness issue he had suffered since signing for AFC in January, although an unfortunate three-game ban for an incident at Sutton United has meant his first few months with them have been a little stop-start.

Nonetheless, the 31-year-old is enjoying a mostly prolonged period of being fit and available, which is in contrast to the months leading up to being brought in by his former Chesterfield teammate Ian Evatt.

Hird said: “Through my whole career, I’d never really had any injuries and then I had a full year of them, which affected me.

“It meant I couldn’t help Chesterfield [avoid relegation] when me and a few players got injured there and then it took me a long time to get fit again following a hip operation.

“That was a big injury, really, and then once I got back fit and got playing, I picked up a knee injury – it wasn’t really a major injury, but it was just off the back of being out for so long with that hip injury.

“All in all, in a four-month period, I probably played around six or seven games, so it’s good to be back fully fit and since the turn of the year I’ve been fully fit, apart from my suspension and one or two games, and I’ve been available.

“It’s nice to have been able to get back fully fit and help the team out.”

Out of all the players at Barrow, Hird knows Evatt the best, having played alongside him at the heart of Chesterfield’s defence for the best part of five seasons.

This week, Evatt spoke about how he wants the mentality of the club to change if they are to be capable of mounting a promotion push next season and Hird is not surprised his manager has shown such ambition.

Hird said: “He’s obviously very ambitious – he was as a player. He played with a lot of emotional managers with a lot of ambition and he gives it everything he’s got.

“To be honest with you, since I’ve come into the building, obviously I’d played with him before but I’m now one of the players under his tenure.

“I’m one of the players, I’m one of the lads and at the end of the day, he’s the gaffer.

“All I can say about that is the way him and Pete [Atherton] and the rest of the staff look after the lads and everything we do behind the scenes – not just the training, everything – is geared towards being successful.”